This story has been updated.
The already ambitious Project Marvel just got much bigger this week, adding plans for major renovations to the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum, as well as a possible effort to turn a nearby golf course into a residential development, according to the most recent documents shared among city and county leaders.
The latest additions were intended to bring Bexar County on board with an overall plan to move the San Antonio Spurs basketball team downtown — and out of the county-owned Frost Bank Center, where the team has a lease to play its games until 2032.
But the now larger scope of work being proposed will soon put city and county leaders’ relationships to the test, and push the limits of public funding needed to cover the additional priorities.
Among the changes now being discussed: Significant upgrades to the county’s East Side venues could be paid for by the county’s roughly $400 million venue tax — which is also considered a key funding source for the roughly $1.5 billion Spurs arena.
“This deal hinges on the utilization of the venue tax for part of the Spurs’ arena,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Wednesday.
County leaders also want the city to give the county the Willow Springs Golf Course for redevelopment — considered a critical piece of their plans for the East Side and a potential funding source for facility renovations.
That component was included in the memo of understanding Bexar County commissioners voted to give Judge Peter Sakai permission to negotiate on Tuesday, but is considered a nonstarter by several City Council members.
“There is not a single development that they could put on top of this golf course that would generate the revenue needed to support the nearly $1 billion it would take to fund improvements to the Frost Bank Center, the Coliseum grounds and the area around the Frost Bank Center,” said Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), who represents the East Side.
The City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to give City Manager Erik Walsh negotiation authority on the broader memo of understanding’s projects.
Leaders from the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce both attended the meeting to encourage members to get the ball rolling on a potential deal.
But the vote came amid significant confusion among the council members about how much influence they’ll have in the coming negotiations.
The agreement is ultimately expected to be signed by Sakai, Walsh and Peter J. Holt, managing partner for San Antonio Spurs Holdings, LLC, as well as the top lawyers for the city, county and team.
On Thursday the City Council voted to add language ensuring McKee-Rodriguez and Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) will be included in the discussions. They turned down a proposed amendment to bring the agreement back to the council for support before its executed.
Details unveiled for Project Marvel
Plans to build the Spurs a new arena have largely been driven by the city, with a public unveiling in November that laid out a much larger vision — deemed “Project Marvel” — that would create an entire downtown entertainment district complete with a land bridge, a renovated convention center, a new live entertainment venue and a new hotel.
An eight-page memo of understanding circulated ahead of Wednesday’s council meeting suggested some of those projects would lean on private funding. Some projects could also help pay for themselves through state taxes recaptured by a project finance zone.
San Antonio’s Chief Financial Officer Ben Gorzell told the council Wednesday that those plans largely rely on the completion of certain projects to make the others possible. They also already stretch the limits of the city’s public funding.
“When you look at any one of those anchor projects that are in there, if we were just trying to do one of those, that would be difficult. We’re going to try to do several at the same time,” Gorzell said.
“We don’t have enough public funds to even do all of the public buildings we’ve identified in the [entertainment] district,” he continued. “We’re going to have to have private sector partners to help us get this done.”
It remains to be seen whether the arena funding is still feasible if the county’s venue tax is spread across other projects.
A consultant’s presentation to the county commissioners on Tuesday laid out major expenses needed to keep each facility in use, including a new roof for the Frost Bank Center.
“We’ve been very clear that we [the county] have a maximum amount that we can give [to the arena],” Sakai said after Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re going to take care of our county investment.”
Relationships put to the test
Since Project Marvel’s unveiling, city and county leaders have been squabbling behind the scenes about to what degree county leaders were included in the early discussions.
City leaders say the county was thoroughly involved, while Sakai has suggested he wasn’t.
On Tuesday Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3), who cast the lone vote against giving Sakai permission to negotiate, was the first to sound the alarm on plans to formally commingle the city and county’s projects.
“As much as I’ve been assured that it’s clear that the county doesn’t have a role in Project Marvel, Project Marvel and all of the projects within Project Marvel are included within the MOU,” Moody said. “I think that that’s something that we need to ultimately strip out as we go forward.”
By Wednesday, some council members were also unhappy about the now expanded project scope, and expressed regret that the county wasn’t brought into the picture sooner.
“For some reason, we can get along and work in a more productive manner with other jurisdictions,” said Councilman Marc Whyte (D10). “We have got to find a way moving forward, whoever’s sitting on this dais and whoever’s working in these offices here in City Hall, to do better in terms of how we relate with our county government.”
A time crunch
The proposed MOU suggests the full list of city and county projects should be hashed out in time for the county to hold an election asking voters to designate the venue tax for them later this year.
“The parties intend to work collaboratively and in coordination on a strategy for developing the projects,” the MOU reads. “These work efforts will proceed based upon a timeline which contemplates allowing the required work and due diligence to be completed for an election on the venue tax to be held in November 2025.”
At Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting, some county officials were skeptical of that timeline, pointing out that the county will need to lay out its plans for the venue tax to the state well before the November election.
They’re still in the early stages of formulating a plan for the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum, which has been deemed critical to the county’s overall participation in the Spurs relocation. But a “master plan” for how they’ll be used in the future will take about six months to develop, the experts said.
After the meeting Sakai reiterated that he wouldn’t enter an agreement with the city until that’s been finalized.
“I want to assure the public that there is no deal. There’s no agreement,” Sakai said after the meeting. “This will start the negotiations in regards to the city, the county and the Spurs, in regards to the projects that we have listed.”
